The Daily Digest
Welcome to the Daily Digest, where marriage amendment opponents air their first TV ad, Bills talks taxes at the U of M, and Romney defends a leaked fundraising video.
Around Minnesota
Minnesotans United for All Families, a group that opposes a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban gay marriage, launches its first television ad today.
You can view it here.
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MPR looks at whether voter ID would prevent voter fraud.
St. Paul must fill a $2 million hole in its ballpark budget.
Gov. Mark Dayton told a labor crowd that the last two years of his tenure have "been mostly playing defense and my vetoes blocking some of the worst legislation possible."
Union News
Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen will seek a stay in a court decision that overturns a new law repealing most collective bargaining rights for school and government officials.
A court delayed the Chicago Public School system's attempt to end the teacher strike there.
The Middle East
Police contained protests in Afghanistan.
In Beirut, Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told supporters to keep up protests against the video that sparked outrage against the U.S. last week.
The Race for Congress
At a talk hosted by the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Rep. Kurt Bills suggested that he could support a tax increase as part of a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit if he were elected to the U.S. Senate.
WCCO pulled an ad targeting Rep. Chip Cravaack paid for by House Majority PAC, an organization that is seeking to unseat the 8th Congressional District Republican.
The Presidential Campaign
Mitt Romney made headlines last night when a video of him speaking at a fundraising event was leaked to liberal magazine Mother Jones.
In the video, Romney says that 47 percent of Obama's supporters are dependent on government and that they "believe they are victims." He also said that "my job is not to worry about those people."
That 47 percent statistic comes from the fact that nearly half of Americans pay no federal income tax. But as the New York Times reports, the figure deserves some context.
Romney held a press conference last night to defend his comments.
President Barack Obama launched a new trade case against China claiming that the country uses subsidies to undercut American car part manufacturers.
Obama is using the case to push back on Romney's criticism that Obama has been soft on China.
Reacting to recent polls that have him trailing Obama nationally and in key states, Romney plans to shift his campaign message this week to focus on what he would do in office.
Politico writes that the shift marks the end of Romney's intense focus on the economy.
Distractions are throwing Romney off his game, the Washington Post reports.
Yesterday, the same paper wrote that that Romney can bounce back during the first presidential debate.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is setting low expectations for the debates.
Romney is making a push to appeal to Hispanic voters. He told a crowd at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce yesterday that the Republican party is "the rightful home of Hispanic Americans," the Washington Post reports.